Thursday, August 07, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Backstory: Horrors! To some they make sense

By Michael Green

Politicians say and do the strangest things--for a reason.

Assemblyman Bob Beers questioned giving $250,000 in state money to Fighting Aids in Our Community Today because, he told the Sun, "From what I understand in the newspapers this FACT program is dedicated to putting condoms on gay men in the black community."

Several prominent African-Americans and homosexuals condemned the statement as bigoted. Beers says his concern was how the state best spends its money.

But when it comes to offending, Beers is on a roll. He dismissed casino workers as frequent dropouts and addicts, often with illegitimate children and with little use for education. When an Episcopal bishop suggested dealing with the budget shortfall, he said she sounded like "a woman with no taxpaying parishioners."

Voters tend to like and admire politicians who say what's on their minds, even when it's silly. Exhibit A, Mayor Oscar Goodman, can be smart and nonsensical in the same breath. Beers seems to emphasize the nonsensical.

But while Beers may strike some as idiotic, he's no idiot. His comments are reminiscent of another right-wing Republican, Chic Hecht, a senator from Nevada from 1983-89. Hecht is best remembered for calling it a "nuclear suppository" and not getting the joke. While in office, Hecht defended South Africa's right to have whatever government it wanted. At the time, Nelson Mandela was in jail and under apartheid whites ruled a black majority.

Hecht's position was callow and insensitive, especially in retrospect, but consistent with two groups. One was his party, which was supposedly conservative and inclined to leave others alone (his party has changed; when Dick Cheney told a local fundraiser that the United States has gone from a defensive to an offensive nation, little did he realize how right he was). The other group, Hecht's constituents, elected him because they preferred a right-wing Republican to a four-term Democratic senator who had the power to stop a nuclear waste dump.

However ridiculous Beers may sound, the question, as in Hecht's case, is whether he represents his constituents. Sadly, he may. Summerlin is a mostly Republican, conservative area. Finding a Democrat willing to work hard enough to beat him would be difficult.

The only hope is to hoist Beers on the petard of his own logic. Has it occurred to anyone that putting condoms on gay men in the black community might reduce the spread of diseases that require long-term hospitalization? That $250,000 investment might save millions to us through private insurance companies that would pass on costs to consumers or public services for which we pay. Since money is all that seems to matter to Beers, he might want to consider that. Ideally, it will occur to voters in his district.

But don't count on it. After all, five of Beers' GOP legislative colleagues, including Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, headed to Hawaii for a legislative conference. At least four will pay for it out of their pockets. This prompted comments that they are being consistent: They aren't billing taxpayers. Thus, they are taking a financial hit to attend.

But it's inconsistent. The purpose of such conferences is to exchange ideas. After a session in which Hettrick and company changed tunes more often than a balky jukebox and demonstrated little interest in open discussion, exchanging ideas would be the least consistent thing they could do.

One of Hettrick's fellow regressives, Assemblywoman Sharron Angle of Reno, chimed in that state workers and teachers are paid for training, but not legislators. Taking Angle to the next logical step, we should hire untrained workers and save money, or finally junk the silly idea of a legislature meeting biennially for four months--unless, of course, they need six weeks of special sessions to pass a tax plan.

Would Angle and her colleagues agree to get rid of these abbreviated sessions, give the Legislature the time to do its job properly and pass some legislation requiring lawmakers to have such training as a particular level of education or a job in which they are exposed to the issues confronting the state?

Or does she plan to support other right-wingers in trying to ban public employees from serving as legislators because they vote on their own salaries? That makes perfect sense. Leave the Legislature to bankers and casino executives deciding whether to pay a franchise tax, a payroll tax or a higher gaming tax. Thank heavens they have no conflict of interest.

Continuing her unwitting contributions to irony, satire and sarcasm, she said if "the press was more friendly," she might have let the state pay for her trip. This is from the woman who declared that the Nevada Supreme Court decision on the two-thirds supermajority meant the end of government of the people, by the people and for the people. It turns out the real danger is government in front of the press. Apparently her intellectual consistency is affected by whether she is being watched. But the ultimate question is whether her constituents find this acceptable. If they didn't, she wouldn't be in a position to say such things.

That's democracy. Their constituents get the government they deserve. But why must the rest of us suffer?